Book by Gregorian U professor explores challenges of reform

(Vatican Radio) As the process of review and renewal of the structures of the Roman Curia continues, Church leaders, educators, local reformers, and observers – along with bishops, priests, religious men and women and lay faithful all around the world – are trying to understand what Pope Francis is asking of them, specifically.

Will Pope Francis Pull It Off? is the title of a book by Fr. Rocco D’Ambrosio, a priest of the Diocese of Bari and Ordinary Professor of Political Philosophy in the School of Sociology at the Pontifical Gregorian University.

Click below to hear our extended conversation with Prof. Rocco D'Ambrosio

Originally published by Liturgical Press in 2015 in Italian under the title, Ce la farà Francesco?, the slim, insightful volume seeks to bring the challenges facing the project and its leader, Pope Francis, into better focus.

The result is an institutional analysis of the Catholic Church in the present day, which offers provocative insights and significant fodder for further consideration on the part of “insiders” and outside observers, alike.

“The question is not an academic one only,” he said, “it also involves simple people – priests, and laypeople around the world.”

He went on to say, “[T]hey appreciate, or they follow, or they are a bit suspicious of the reform that the Pope started, and when a reform is on, the first question is, ‘Where are we going?’ [Then], ‘Is the reform the good one – the right one for this moment?’ [Hence], the question, ‘Will Pope Francis pull it off?’”

“I hope so,” Fr. D’Ambrosio answered, adding that the question is meant really to put the issues in focus, before his readers.

“[To] start a conversation,” is the goal, D’Ambrosio said, “because not everything is related to the Pope: the Pope is the leader, the Pope is the shepherd of the Catholic Church, but we should ask if the Church – the Churches, to be correct – the dioceses, the parishes, the movements – are [they] following him? Are [they] understanding him and his reform?”